Dublin doctor placed on probation

ROANOKE — She avoided an active prison sentence, but a Dublin doctor Tuesday was placed on four years probation and was stripped of her medical license for defrauding Medicaid and Medicare programs.
Dr. Linda Sue Cheek also was ordered to perform 600 hours of community service and pay in excess of $25,000 in fines and restitution.
Cheek pleaded guilty in February to “participating in a scheme to knowingly and willfully defraud the Medicaid and Medicare health care programs for her own personal financial gain.”
Tuesday, she acknowledged to U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad having accepted payments that should not have been paid.
According to the prosecution, the fraud took place between 2002 and 2006.
On Feb. 28, 2006, federal and state agents executed a search warrant on Cheek’s office at 28 Town Center Drive in Dublin, seeking the charts of 55 of her patients. At that time, Cheek said, the agents videotaped and photographed the entire office and copied all her computer records.
However, at that time, the approximately 60-year-old doctor indicated she had “no intention of buckling under the pressure of misguided governmental powers.”
State Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, “Successful investigations such as this one are essential to putting an end to health care fraud in the commonwealth. Health care fraud significantly impacts Virginia citizens, and costs taxpayers.”
U.S. Attorney John Brownlee added, “Taxpayers spend billions of dollars to support the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. Physicians, like Dr. Cheek, who defraud those important programs for their own desire for personal wealth, must be prosecuted and punished.”
Cheek operated New River Medical Associates, Inc. The facility operated primarily as a pain management and alternative medicine practice.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cheek admitted in federal court that between January 2002 and March 2006 she submitted a series of false Medicare and Medicaid claims relating to her medical practice, including the practice of billing the programs for services she had not performed.
In addition, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid for services she claimed to perform herself that were in fact performed by one or both of the two nurse practitioners employed by New River Medical Associates. She acknowledged she was out of the office, and, at times, out of the country, when the procedures were performed.
Cheek also admitted to billing Medicaid for individual treatments called “cleansing sessions,” according to an investigational service.
“These ‘cleansing sessions’ were performed and billed as regular, individual office visits but were carried out in a group setting. Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance providers do not allow medical professionals to bill for group sessions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.
Cheek had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

Comments

comments

Dublin doctor placed on probation

ROANOKE — She avoided an active prison sentence, but a Dublin doctor Tuesday was placed on four years probation and was stripped of her medical license for defrauding Medicaid and Medicare programs.
Dr. Linda Sue Cheek also was ordered to perform 600 hours of community service and pay in excess of $25,000 in fines and restitution.
Cheek pleaded guilty in February to “participating in a scheme to knowingly and willfully defraud the Medicaid and Medicare health care programs for her own personal financial gain.”
Tuesday, she acknowledged to U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad having accepted payments that should not have been paid.
According to the prosecution, the fraud took place between 2002 and 2006.
On Feb. 28, 2006, federal and state agents executed a search warrant on Cheek’s office at 28 Town Center Drive in Dublin, seeking the charts of 55 of her patients. At that time, Cheek said, the agents videotaped and photographed the entire office and copied all her computer records.
However, at that time, the approximately 60-year-old doctor indicated she had “no intention of buckling under the pressure of misguided governmental powers.”
State Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, “Successful investigations such as this one are essential to putting an end to health care fraud in the commonwealth. Health care fraud significantly impacts Virginia citizens, and costs taxpayers.”
U.S. Attorney John Brownlee added, “Taxpayers spend billions of dollars to support the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. Physicians, like Dr. Cheek, who defraud those important programs for their own desire for personal wealth, must be prosecuted and punished.”
Cheek operated New River Medical Associates, Inc. The facility operated primarily as a pain management and alternative medicine practice.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cheek admitted in federal court that between January 2002 and March 2006 she submitted a series of false Medicare and Medicaid claims relating to her medical practice, including the practice of billing the programs for services she had not performed.
In addition, Cheek admitted to billing Medicaid for services she claimed to perform herself that were in fact performed by one or both of the two nurse practitioners employed by New River Medical Associates. She acknowledged she was out of the office, and, at times, out of the country, when the procedures were performed.
Cheek also admitted to billing Medicaid for individual treatments called “cleansing sessions,” according to an investigational service.
“These ‘cleansing sessions’ were performed and billed as regular, individual office visits but were carried out in a group setting. Medicaid, Medicare and other insurance providers do not allow medical professionals to bill for group sessions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.
Cheek had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.